Anyone who believes being in a long-established metal band is in any way glamorous should probably have his or her head examined. As if the current state of the industry and its paltry payouts aren’t enough, there are all manner of other unavoidable life elements that eventually crop up to stymie an abiding group’s ability to continue the quintessential “touring band” lifestyle. PTA meetings and unexpected spousal uproars ain’t just for the suburbanites, friends. Plus, as most anyone over 30 can likely attest, a person’s ability to endure time spent with folks who hold increasingly contrasting points of view *seriously* diminishes as the gray hairs slowly strengthen their foothold.
Case in point: England’s conquerors of galloping doom, Solstice. These guys have been kicking around since 1990, and during the course of their two full-lengths, one EP and a handful of splits, they count a staggering 29 people connected to their venerable name. In an effort to avoid boosting any hennish clucking further, however, I’ll leave the digging up of internal crises/gossip to the reader. Suffice to say: It ain’t always easy (or pretty) to keep a long-standing project such as this afloat, but it’s rewarding as Hell when the hardships are routed and something worthy finally rifles down the pike.
A full fifteen years after the band’s last bit of new material – 1998’s New Dark Age – Solstice have finally returned with a new vocalist (one-time Arcane Sun frontman, Paul Kearns), a new bassist (current Monolith Cult 4-stringer, Ian Buxton), a new drummer (current Craven Idol/Deceptor pounder, James Ashbey) and 27 minutes of fresh barbarity in Death’s Crown is Victory.
The good news? Things pretty much pick up directly where they left off: Two stretched 9 minute wallopers – “I Am the Hunter” and “Death’s Crown is Victory” – that flex all the epic, striding thumpery the band delivered on previous releases, bookended by two shorter, yet equally as galloping instrumentals in “Fortress England” and the closing “Aequinoctium II.” And the full span does a beautiful job of seamlessly blending Rich Walker and Andy Whittaker’s melodic, elegant lead play with the overall hammer-swinging doom mood.
The bad news? Well, none, really, unless you’re inclined to get your skivvies in a twist over the fact that they’re opting to drag their feet on releasing a CD version of the album. Still, you can pick up the digital form for a mere $4 from the Solstice bandcamp, and cassette and vinyl adaptations will land shortly via Into the Void Records and the band’s own White Horse label respectively.
As for the future, things look pretty bright. A headlining spot alongside the amazing Dark Quarterer looms for early 2014, and the band plans to continue the route of intensifying their harvest through periodic EP releases in lieu of bloated full-lengths. In fact, the next round has already been divulged: the To Sol A Thane EP. Let’s just hope the ship has finally steadied, and that life’s obligatory obstructions are kept to a workable minimum, because epic doom really does gallop all the more heavily when a healthy Solstice is knocking about on all cylinders. Death’s Crown is Victory is proof of that.
